IUCN threat status:

Brief Summary

Description

Western Harvest Mouse are adaptable, widespread, and abundant, especially in meadows, prairies, old pastures, stream valleys, and marshes. They eat seeds, insects, and plants. They rarely live for more than a year, but under optimal conditions, a female can produce more than 50 young in her lifetime. Their nests are built of plant material, usually on the ground, but sometimes in burrows or in vegetation slightly above the ground. Each mouse may have several nests, which it uses at different times. The Mice are nonterritorial and show a great deal of tolerance for one another, even huddling together when it is cold. Such intimate contact carries risks: they are afflicted with many parasites, including protozoans, worms, fleas, chiggers, mites, and lice. They are a vector for a hantavirus that can cause acute respiratory illness and hemorrhagic fever in humans.